Our vulnerability 

By Ermin Garcia Jr.

 

WATCHING the images of wanton destruction and chaos in the Visayan region has jolted many into realizing that, indeed, the worst can befall us any day, any moment.

Stories about parents leaving behind corpses of some of their children on the streets in order to scrounge for food for their surviving children are heartrending.

Reports of widespread looting in the ravaged areas suddenly made everyone realize how lawlessness and desperation for survival can break one’s spirit and faith in one’s community.

While we have been through countless typhoons and massive flooding and a number of earthquakes, never have we witnessed such a colossal tragedy close to home. We were hardly affected by similar news from Bangaldesh, Africa, China, and US but not this time. All too sudden, the images of devastation of lives, homelessness, despair, rotting corpses on the streets flashed on our TV screens and posted on internet, published in newspapers have made us realize how truly vulnerable we all are in our small communities in the face of nature’s wrath.

Finally, many have come to quietly realize, that with each act of neglect, indifference, greed and plunder, comes a deadly payback time when least expected. And when that happens, we’ve learned that everything else is between us and our Maker.

I sincerely pray that as we move on soon with this national tragedy behind us, we will all remember to be more caring towards our environment, more committed to help build stronger communities, more caring towards those who have less, more dedicated to strengthen our government’s capabilities to serve our people, more vigilant in ensuring that our public funds intended to ensure delivery of basic services at all times are not lost to corrupt public officials and businessmen.

This I pray.

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LESSONS. From a distance, I see two vital lessons that we must learn from the Yolanda tragedy.

Firstly, that government cannot be expected to come to your aid when you need it. Our government is simply not structured and equipped to respond instantly to a calamity because our government does not have infrastructure that advanced nations have.  Consequently, our government operates largely on an ad hoc basis. I have no doubt government will be there for you when crunch time comes, but belatedly.

Secondly and ultimately, we and our families must fend for ourselves until the government is ready for us. What this means is, we must learn how to cope with calamities on our own until help comes.  There is nothing that anyone can do to make our government more efficient but for government to learn and teach itself the importance of planning and discipline.

But there is much that can be done for families and communities to prepare them for the worst calamities and emergencies. Dagupan City is on the right track by seeking to bring disaster-preparedness from the government level to the household level.  However, I seriously doubt the effectiveness of the approach adopted.

First of all, an expert duly trained for disaster preparedness must be harnessed. Then I surmise that with the expert’s help, one such important activity is the drafting of a module for disaster-preparedness for families that can be taught in all levels of schools, introduced to all sectors, i.e., parent-teachers associations, senior citizens groups, civic and religious groups.

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NEW ZOMBIES. Don’t look now but in just five months into the Fernandez administration in Dagupan City, the ugly head of corruption was seen to begin rearing its ugly head last week.

As our Fire player Gonz Duque reported in his TV-radio public affairs program, the supplemental budget that Mayor Belen Fernandez desperately needs was suddenly held hostage at the city council.

Everyone in the city hall was understandably shell-shocked by the sudden and unexpected boycott of the regular session by both members of the majority and the minority, the session that was expected to pass the supplemental budget.

Why and how did the boycott happen?

From what I can make out of it, a number of the ghosts of the Judas 9 are slowly making a comeback with some members of the new majority in tow.

But we will not name names for now until we have confirmation by their subsequent official actions. Let’s watch them do their best…or their worst for the city.

Just like in the zombies world, one zombie is already one too many to make more zombies out of unwitting survivors. It will, therefore, soon become imperative for the worthless zombies to be exposed and politically eliminated in due time before they take over the city, rapaciously sucking the blood out of Dagupeños.

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RIGHT OF REPLY. I gather that some foul-mouthed jukebox minions in local media have launched another intense offensive on radio and in print against those who are standing in the way of their new patron, Mr, Antonio Cabangon Chua – principally against Mayor Belen Fernandez.

Their mission obviously is to pressure Mayor Belen to legitimize the continued illegal operation of the Citystate Savings Bank Dagupan branch, owned by Mr. Cabangon Chua. Tsk-tsk.

Some tirades that offered nothing to help their patron’s cause have also been leveled at us ostensibly to discredit our reports on the status of the bank.  My friendly unsolicited advice to them – Stop doing a disservice to your new employer by simply filling the air with expletives that serve nothing but unfairly project a negative image of their boss, Mr. Cabangon Chua.  Instead, try explaining rationally and stop mimicking the Tulfo brothers, one of whom hosts the Bitag TV program.

The PUNCH is open to receive and publish any statement from their end to explain their patron’s side of the issues raised here.  We uphold the right of reply of our readers and news subjects as a matter of policy precisely to prove that we harbor no malice towards none.  To cite a few examples, when we were critical of the official acts of Mayor Benjie Lim and then Councilor Brian Lim, we published in full the retort and anguish of Mrs. Celia Lim.  Then Dagupan City Administrator Raffy Baraan’s rebuke also saw space in our corner. When we peppered the shotgun project of Guv Spines, the clarification written by his functionary saw print.

Our readers and news subjects normally refute our allegations civilly. But in the case of Mr. Cabangon Chua’s defenders, even the gutter language that they are enamored with, will do. Just get down to the issues.

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BLUE RIBBON AFFAIRS. Listening to some commentaries about the complaints I filed with the Dagupan sanggunian that are now being tackled by the latter’s newly created Blue Ribbon committee, it appears that some are misguided (or deliberately misleading the public) to believe that it is for me to be present during the hearing and submit evidence to prove my allegations. Wrong.

The complaints I submitted involve public interests. It is for the committee to recognize that the allegations are indeed imbued with public interest, and if so, it is for the committee to require the government offices to submit whatever documents it needs to arrive at a prudent recommendation.

Even the ombudsman is mandated to investigate any complaint against any public official motu propio even without a submitted evidence but simply guided by the nature of the complaint.  Even a complaint filed by someone who wants to remain anonymous or is not a resident of the community is deemed valid.

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